A Royal Catnapping
Prison Break - Heavy Metal Mix - Inside a large cell in the lower level of the castle, there was a young man with spiked-orange hair sitting on a stone bench, his fingers rolling over what appeared to be a small strand of silk. It had been a few weeks since his imprisonment; Solele had successfully escaped, however, he had been captured and placed into this prison cell deep in the lower recesses of the castle. His wounds had been given minor first-aid, and for some reason they just seemed to heal from there. The only thing plaguing the boy now was this predicament. The warden jingled his keys back and forth- obviously bored out of his mind. "Ah, so what are you in here for?" The older man scratched his head- revealing how badly he had aged. "I tend to forget these things....refresh me?" "Oh, it's you." Jason cast the elderly man a look; this warden wasn't like the rest. Possibly a side effect of his age, this man wasn't overly snide or cruel, in fact, he seemed to enjoy talking to Jason; however, his aged state often caused him to forget things. Like now. "Storming the castle." Jason replied bluntly. "They kidnapped someone important to me, so I led a one man siege on the castle, killed multiple soldiers, and managed to get her to escape before I was arrested." He'd explained this several times, but the man kept forgetting. "Ahh..." The old geezer sighed, twirling his keys around on his finger casually. "That's an admirable effort. But sometimes, your life's traffic lights should always be yellow, boya. It'd be easier if they were." Such a...random statement. There was no doubt about it- this man had gone senile. "That's never been my strong suit." Jason replied, still working the silk. "Also, may I offer you a small bit of advice myself?" "Go ahead. But like you, I'm an old dog. I don't learn new tricks." The old man sighed as he ran his fingers through his almost-gone hair. "Tell me whatever, boya." "Run." Jason said simply. "Within the next hour, please do not be anywhere inside this castle. It won't be safe for you. Over the past month, you've been good to me, old man." His eyes narrowed for a moment as he looked him straight in the eye. "I don't want you to get caught up in what's about to happen." "I understand." The man began to walk off, spinning his keys around on one finger so casually. It seemed that none of this seemed to really bother him for god knows what reason. Quietly, Jason bid his time, waiting until he was sure the man had left the castle; all in all, this took about an half hour, as he wanted to be sure, before he stood up, and stretched. "Alright..." He tugged on the strand of 'silk' and it seemed to slice into the ground; revealing a large line of not silk, but wire, attached to the ground. The sharp edges of the wire sliced into the stone ground, before it ripped upwards, extending and slicing the metal bars apart, allowing him to step out of his cell and into the empty room. "That was easy enough." He sighed; he wished he could have regained his dagger, his father's friend had left it for him as a present. However, sentimentality wasn't going to help him here, and jailers weren't stupid enough to leave weapons lying in the same room as the prisoner they'd be confiscated from in the first place. He slowly left the cell room, and began to ascend a staircase out of the dungeon. He knew he had to be wary; guards could be anywhere. "Oh no you didn't." A guard called out- seemingly out of nowhere- as he and a whole platoon rushed into sights, spears at the ready. Truth be told, one couldn't distinguish the royal guards from (most of) the Rune Knights. "Men, charge!" And with that...well, they charged. Though, obviously, it wouldn't do any good. "Just what I needed." Jason said calmly. "Inventory." He grabbed one of the spears by the pole; jerking and bringing its owner with it. The man quickly found his vision blocked by Jason's hand, who then gripped him firmly and threw him towards an oncoming soldier, gripping the spear in his hands. And then...he began to dance, sweeping under the oncoming soldiers, twirling the spear above his head, slashing into a large group of them, causing blood to splatter everywhere. "And Solele always did ask why I loved to bathe...can't ever get rid of the strong scent of human blood." He muttered to himself, parrying an oncoming soldier with ease. He then planted the spear into the ground, hoisting himself up before using it to initiate a large spiral motion; running off the narrow walls until he was spinning, his legs taking around the remaining guards with ease. Jason landed on the ground, dropping the spear as he picked up one of the soldiers swords. And then be began to run again, heading up another staircase; it was clear he was headed towards the main throne room now. ---- A few minutes later, he had reached the throne room- it seemed that Faust was sitting on his high-and-mighty throne, staring straight at the boy. A thunderous roaring laugh echoed through the hallways, "Impressive. I didn't expect you to get so far, boy. But then again, those with your eyes, they always seem to do the most damage." Despite this...he didn't move. "That's because you're so preoccupied with your own self-serving goals, Faust." Jason replied; rather hypocritically, in fact, but one could not deny he had a point. "You wouldn't even begin to think someone would dare break out of your prison cell to oppose you." He nearly spat the last word. "How can you sit there so absolutely smug? I got Solele back, I'm not stuck in that cell, and best of all? I'm about to kill you." Faust grinned at him...still smugly. He didn't move a single inch. "Why don't you come and kill me, boy?" His tone was still mocking. "Attack right now." Jason's eyes narrowed, and, the man's goading was starting to rack on his nerves. Any sensible person would see through the obvious bait; an angry Jason, however, through sensibility out the window, and for good measure, shot it with a pistol. He gripped his sword, and then dashed forward, clearing the distance between them remarkably faster. "Die already!" Jason raised his sword, thrusting it forward towards the man's heart. The blade made contact with his old decrepit body; piercing his heart instantly. Surprisingly...Faust didn't move. At all. It was increasingly clear that this was a decoy. 'His' eyes shone azure momentarily, as an incessant beeping started. "Destruction in ten..." "Son of a bitch!" Jason hissed; he'd fell for it hook, line, and he needed to get the hell out of this room. Realizing he had no time to head for the door, he ran towards the windows; carved into stone they were, and thus, open, the boy leapt from the tall tower of the castle, catching onto a branch of a tree, just as the upper tower of the castle exploded. Jason watched the embers flicker with satisfaction; however, he himself intended to finish the job. He fell from the branch, landing neatly onto the ground. "Now...I guess it's time to make my move." "Can you not?" A voice called out- she charged in with the 'grace' of a rhino. This woman, who possessed long, crimson hair, and matching eyes. She...didn't seem to be wearing much. She looked more like an Amazon than anyone of real military importance. What she held in her hands was a long spear- it seemed to be rapidly changing. "How on earth did you get out, boy...?" "I spent the month knitting." Jason replied offhandedly, twirling something that glinted in the moonlight around his index, thumb, and middle finger. "Knightwalker, I believe?" His eyes narrowed as took a few small steps around her; she mimicked his actions, the two sizing each other up, contempt etched into every line of their faces. "I assume you intend to oppose me again? You'd have no better chance this. I left my sword in your king's chambers. Your thugs stole my dagger last month. Even my precious wire was wasted. I'm wide open." "I don't plan to oppose you." Knightwalker swung her spear around, before lobbing it over her shoulder and aiming it towards Jason's head; it's cannon mode had been activated. "I plan to kill you." "You would say that." Jason replied, casually twirling the silver line in his hand. "But before you do, tell me; how much do you value your kingdom? This castle for example, the symbol of your king's 'power'; what does it mean to you, Knightwalker?" "It means a lot. I THINK." Erza scratched her head in confusion- even she herself didn't know what it meant to her. However, as head guard of the royal army, she'd still fight. "A lot of people live here, and we keep them in line. They don't complain. Isn't that enough?" "That's all I needed to hear." Jason replied, and the silver line in his hand was revealed to be yet another thread; which Jason pulled with extreme force. At first, nothing seemed to happen; then the ground began to rumble and shake, and Jason himself took several steps back while Knightwalker wasn't looking. "Consider this my parting gift, Knightwalker." He whispered in her ear as he ducked past her. Slithering out sight, a large explosion rocked the entire area, lighting the area up in an orange light as fragments of stone flew everywhere, the building collapsing, the people inside dying. "That boy...." Knightwalker hritted her teeth as she looked on exasperation as she unflinchingly walked out -in an opposite direction- admist the numerous explosions, giving absolutely zero damns about the numerous detonations happening. "You'll pay dearly for this...someday." ---- As Jason made it safely away from Erza, he looked back on his destruction; and it was good. He took a breath, taking in the cold night air. He would love to reunite with Solele right now, a month away from her was an extremely depressing affair. However, he didn't know where she was, and they had never expected to be separated, so they never gave each other a convenient means of contacting the other. Regrettably, he had to shelve this idea. He turned towards the sky, and realised, now that he was free, and the destruction of the castle set Faust back even a little bit, it was now time for his next target. "RISKAL!" He called into the air, and was greeted only a few seconds later, the roar of his familiar mount greeted him as the beast flew down from the sky. Despite it's fierce appearance, it clearly loved Jason, nuzzling well into the boy's neck and was greeted with an affectionate gesture in return. "It's great to see you again too." The boy was relieved to see the familiar face of someone at least. "I don't have any Imela fruit on me right now, boy, but I'll get you some when we return home. For now..." He looked up at the moonlit sky. "Riskal, take me up to Extalia. We have to pay the Exceed a visit." Riskal let out a roar as Jason climbed on its back; it began to flap its wings furiously before taking off into the air, switching from a roar to an avian shriek. What kind of creature was this? "I'm coming for you, Exceed of Extalia. Stay right there...I'm going to come crashing down and rip your world asunder." ---- "You look pathetic. You prepared so much, but did you fail due to betrayal, or due to something unexpected? You even had your guards get crushed.” A meowing voice called out to this old man. "…Well if it isn't the stupid cat. I never thought you would come down to this world." "You're out of function. And you, and your kingdom can't be active anymore right? What are you going to do?" "……I will rebuild it. The new doomsday device will be born, so I will create a new kingdom by having that as the center of it. –But because of this incident, we have lost quite a lot of man power. For a short while, I will be hiding myself." "Do you really think that? Your face right now doesn't say that. –Your face is that of someone who had their soul crushed. You got crushed by that boy right? You are just a human after all." "Next I…" "Next? HAHAHA. There isn't a next time. You end here. You know that you are worthless after losing that Esper?" "……What are you going to do with me?" "Nothing much. You will be sent to our prisons. I'm really unpleasant right now, so you guys can cheer me up. You can wait for the spider's web to come down there. But I will be taking all of your power. For me to take it from you guys, it sure makes me happy that tears will be flowing out from my eyes!" "……You sure are a horrible bunch of beings." "Who were the ones who were trying to control me and the other Exceed from the shadows? Well, you just basically received your punishment for it. –I will give your power back to you if you can conquer this world." "...The rest of you. Destroy the boy." END